Venezuela – The National Constituent Assembly is in Place – But the fight for Sovereignty isn’t Over

Venezuela has voted on 30 July for a National Constituent Assembly (ANC – Asamblea Nacional Constituyente) with a resounding close to 8.1 million votes, or over 41% of the total eligible electorate. The figure was confirmed by the president of the National Electoral Council, Tibisay Lucena. The Chavistas battle cry before the elections was Venceremos! – Ché Guevaras favored revolutionary slogan. And the day after, 31 July, the victorious Ganamos! Accompanied by dancing in the streets.

To counter the mainstream presstitute mass media slandering of Venezuela, calling the legitimate democratically elected President a dictator, and that the vote was illegitimate and against the present Venezuelan Constitution – lets explain upfront what the Constitution says:

Article 347 of Venezuela’s constitution:

“The original constituent power rests with the people of Venezuela. This power may be exercised by calling a National Constituent Assembly for the purpose of transforming the State, creating a new juridical order and drawing up a new Constitution.”

Article 348 states

“(t)he initiative for calling a National Constituent Assembly may emanate from the President of the Republic sitting with the Cabinet of Ministers; from the National Assembly by a two-thirds vote of its members; from the Municipal Councils in open session, by a two-thirds vote of their members; and from 15% of the voters registered with the Civil and Electoral Registry.”

Article 349 states

“(t)he President of the Republic shall not have the power to object to the new Constitution. The existing constituted authorities shall not be permitted to obstruct the Constituent Assembly in any way.”

The process to vote for the ANC is complex but highly democratic. The 30 July election chose 545 members to the National Constituent Assembly, of which two thirds (364) were elected on a regional or territorial basis, and one third (181) by sectors of professions or activities, i.e. students, farmers, unions of different labor forces, employees, business owners – and so on. This cross-section of people’s representation is the most solid basis for democracy. See also http://www.globalresearch.ca/why-is-venezuela-in-the-white-houses-crosshairs/5594240.

The 8.1million pro-ANC vote may, at first sight, with 41% of total eligible voters not constitute an absolute majority, but they are a legitimate majority analyzed from different perspectives. The only historic data we currently have on Venezuela is the one from the 1999 Constitution (still valid today), which President Hugo Chavez Frias, elected in 1998, initiated after asking the people whether they agreed to the drafting of a new Constitution. He received an overwhelming 80% support.

Assuming that on average about 20% to 25% of the electorate do not vote (based on the past 19 elections since the Bolivarian Revolutionary Government took over in 1998), of the 20 million eligible electorate, about 15 million could be expected to vote. With 8.1million ANC supporters, the National Constituent Assembly resulting from the 30 July elections is a clear majority, about 54%.

The election result is another resounding victory, when compared to the opposition’s plebiscite, illegally held a week earlier. The opposition claims having received 7.2 million votes against the ANC. However, by all observers, including internationals, this is a highly questionable and probably vastly inflated figure (based on their election boots which were a fraction of those of the ANC election process countrywide. Plus, the announced result cannot be checked, as the voter’s bulletins were burned by the opposition, as soon as they informed the public of the plebiscite’s result. However, even assuming this figure was correct – which it most likely isn’t – the total alleged votes cast between de official ANC process and the illegitimate referendum would amount to 15.3 million, of which 8.1 million represents about 53%, or an absolute majority of the votes cast.

For analysis sake, let’s just look at the curious composition of votes the oppositions claims having received. In their referendum people had to respond with yes, or no to three questions, with each one being a leading question against the ANC. Each one of the three answers counted for one vote, thus, there were up to three votes per person. The same people also were allowed to vote in several districts. During the press conference held by the opposition, a journalist asked whether it was correct that one voter could cast his / her vote 17 times. The answer of one of the directors was yes, but it may be discovered at the final count. There were also stories of 10-year old kids and other minors voting. Also, there are 101,000 eligible voters abroad – but according to the opposition, the votes received from Venezuelans living outside Venezuela were almost 700,000.

The illegitimate – yes, illegitimate – opposition vote is pure farce. Though it can never be checked, since the votes were burned and given the above details, the promulgated results of 7.2 million votes against the ANC would have to be discounted by at least 30% to 50%. Yes, illegitimate, as the Constitution does not allow interference from anybody, once the ANC process has been launched.

Curiously though, the opposition, having the majority in the National Assembly could have initiated themselves an National Constituent Assembly. They didn’t. They could have actively participated in President Maduro’s ANC vote and presented their own candidates as they would have, had they respected the principles of democracy. They didn’t do that either. It is clear, they are not interested in a democratic process. They are not interested even in dialogue, one of Mr. Maduro’s priorities for conflict resolution. They want a violent ‘regime change’ – that’s what their Washington masters want and pays them for.

——–

The most vociferous critics of the process came from the usual villains, CNN, BBC, Washington Post, NYT, even The Guardian, but so far relatively few from the EU and her members. One of the countries that sticks out most with her unsolicited comment is “neutral” Switzerland, where the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on President Maduro, to cancel the elections for the new National Constitutional Assembly in ‘respect of democracy’. It further declared through the Swiss state-run radio-TV station, SRG, that the elections were illegal, as they are against the Constitution – which is a blatant lie, the Swiss Executive is aware of, but it pleases for sure Washington.

The Trump Administration also said it would not recognize the vote and slammed more heavy sanctions on Venezuela, among them, blocking President Maduro’s alleged ‘assets held in the US’. This in itself is a massive and ridiculous propaganda falsehood. It must be clear to any dimwit, that President Maduro does not have assets in the US. Washington forced ‘sanctions’ will probably also follow from its European vassals.

The right-wing puppet leaders (sic) in Latin America have of course also immediately played to the tune of their northern masters. The first one to do so was Peru’s President Pablo Kuczynski, saying that his government would not recognize the result of the elections. But who cares what Peru thinks about sovereign democratic Venezuela? – His arrogance went as far as calling upon the Peruvian Prime Minister to form a committee that should look into possible actions Peru could and should take against Venezuela. If one knows the level of corruption that literally runs Peru – one of the worst, if not the worst of all Latin America – and the way Kuczynski was ‘elected’, or rather shoed in by his Washington Masters, one can just chuckle in disbelief. If there was any un-bought, uncorrupted functioning legal system in Peru – the last five consecutive Presidents would now be in jail for corruption and crimes against humanity, including the present one.

Of course, Colombia and Mexico, among the staunchest vassals of the northern empire were also accusing Venezuela’s ANC initiative as being illegitimate, anti-democratic, for the sole purpose of allowing President Maduro to become a dictator and to bend the new Constitution so that he may stay President for life. None of this is of course intended or in the cards, or indeed allowed under the Constitution and the National Assembly still in place. In fact, according to the Constitution, neither the President or the National Assembly which is not being resolved or replaced by the new National Constituent Assembly, have a right to interfere in ANC’s process of drafting a new Constitution.

On a recent visit to Mexico, the ultra-right-wing (Tea Party) CIA chief, Mr. Pompeo, pledged for both Mexico and Colombia to help assure that the situation in Venezuela is being corrected. Let’s not forget, Colombia’s President Santos (the latest Peace Nobel Laureate!) has already several months ago asked Brussels to send NATO troop to Colombia. They may already be there. With a 2,200 km porous border between Colombia and Venezuela, infiltration of Colombian and NATO troops into Venezuela would not be complicated (http://www.globalresearch.ca/venezuela-washingtons-latest-defamation-to-bring-nato-to-south-america/5575480).

Among the few but strong supporters of the ANC and which called for the world to respect this legitimate and democratic process, were Nicaragua, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, Iran, China and Russia. Others may follow. So far Brussels has only been mumbling. What remains to be seen is how these countries, notably Russia and China, would react, when it comes down to the wire with a possible CIA / US / NATO instigated coup à la Maidan, in Kiev, Ukraine, in 2014.

———

Why did President Maduro call now for a National Constituent assembly to modify or redraft the current Constitution? – The answer is simple. Dictators around the world, like France under Macron, the UK under Mme. May, and probably soon Germany under Mme. Merkel, would call for Martial Law to clamp down ‘legitimately’ on the peoples’ rights and carry through their atrocious militarization and austerity programs, as well as to ’selectively curtail foreign influence’.

President Maduro, instead, follows democratic principles to the core. The purpose of a new or reality adjusted Constitution has precisely to do with foreign interference to the detriment of Venezuela’s economy. They include outside orchestrated food and medical supply shortages; from Miami manipulated black-market vs. official exchange rates, ruining local purchasing power, thereby causing inflation and a sagging economy; foreign news networks deadly propaganda; and infiltration of foreign trained, armed and funded violent terror groups to help organizing the relatively small Venezuelan elitist opposition to cause havoc and civil unrest – as we have seen over the last several months in the runup to these ANC elections. The US State Department funded NED – National Endowment for Democracy – is a key sponsor of violent opposition in Venezuela, as well as elsewhere in the world. The new or adjusted Constitution is expected to allow the government to sovereignly control its borders and its economy with whatever means it has to take to keep the criminals out and regain full sovereignty.

These vicious foreign supported groups have cost the life of some110 people during the last few months leading up to the ANC vote, through the most horrendous acts of terror, including lynching, burning alive, shooting, looting of shops, attacking and destroying schools, public infrastructure, police headquarters and more. There is no end to the list of heinous crimes committed by the so-called opposition – which is nothing else as a tool for the Washington tyrant-in-chief, who will not let go until he has achieved ‘regime change’.

The presstitute doesn’t present this real picture of things. They portray the violence and dead toll as the government’s responsibility. In fact, thanks to the diligence of national police and the 200,000 military forces deployed throughout the country in the last couple of weeks to protect the population, the voters, in the leadup to the elections, violence and dead tolls were kept in check. Violent outbreak would have most likely been even more atrocious without the military deployment.

A new puppet government would return Venezuela to the pre-Chavez years – or most likely much worse – giving away Venezuelans world’s largest hydrocarbon deposit is to US petrol giants and torturing Chavistas and anybody who had in the past opposed and still opposes the violent undemocratic, oppressive servile-to-Washington elite.

—–

What’s next for Venezuela? – Well, it’s not over. The National Constituent Assembly is just the first step. The rabid bulldog will not let go. He keeps attacking and biting relentlessly and without merci sovereign democratic and un-obedient Venezuela. The steady internal foreign instigated economic and social decay, the build-up to what prompted President Maduro to initiate the ANC vote, was very reminiscent of the fascist 9/11/1973 CIA instigated military coup in Chile.

The Chile coup was also preceded by artificially and outside instrumented shortages of food and medical supplies – paying people to protest in the streets. The only difference there is that the Chilean army was split and high ranks defected President Allende. This doesn’t seem to be the case in Venezuela. – The overwhelming people’s support for the ANC has further cemented the solidarity within the Bolivarian Republic – and given the revolution new energy. Venezuela will prevail. Venceremos!

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45 Comments

“The Trump Administration also said it would not recognize the vote and slammed more heavy sanctions on Venezuela, among them, blocking President Maduro’s alleged ‘assets held in the US’. This in itself is a massive and ridiculous propaganda falsehood. It must be clear to any dimwit, that President Maduro does not have assets in the US. Washington forced ‘sanctions’ will probably also follow from its European vassals.”

Therefore showing how trump is carrying out his campaign promises of non intervention in foreign countries and how his foreign policies are indeed different than those clinton was expected to pursue.

“Mexico, among the staunchest vassals of the northern empire were also accusing Venezuela’s ANC initiative as being illegitimate, anti-democratic” The case of Mexico giving lessons to others on democracy (just like its US masters) is pathetic, outrageous. Mexico qualifies well for a failed state. Mexico is number one in kidnappnings and murders in the whole world. People do not trust the police and other authorities since they are very often involved in the organized crime. To resolve this problems the governmet came with the brilliant idea of controlling and silence the media. Brave journalists that dare to expose the truth about all this chaos and corruption are often murdered. So the question comes WTF is doing Mexico in Venezuela!? What are they trying to prove since every citizen in the rest of America and probably the world knows that this country is a mess?

Kidnapping in Mexico is a way of life. The number of kidnappings is astronomical. Only a microscopic portion of them are reported, and yet almost everyone has a family member who has been kidnapped or mugged, so kidnapping is a way of making a living that carries a reasonably low risk. Anyone can be be kidnapped if the kidnappers figure the family of the victim can scrap together some money. You can be kidnapped even in plain daylight on a busy street. If the family reports the kidnapping to the police, chances are very high they will never see the kidnapped person again. Even without reporting it, victims are often killed.

Mass graves are dug up with some regularity. Some states are entirely ruled by armed criminals. Police in those parts are either non-existent or part of criminal rings. Of course you see none of this when you go to a tourist resort. The capital has a very high crime rate but is relatively safe compared to most ther places because of the heavy presence of armed forces.
Mexico is one of the most dystopic countries on earth. It is also the model for the future of liberal capitalism where profit is the only measure.

This article seems to be apologetic for the totalitarian that Maduro is. Pointing out the posited law, which was made by the socialist government to favor the socialist government, is irrelevant in light of the fact that people are eating their pets. Chavez and Maduro have run the Venezuelan economy into the ground. I support the opposition and hope they hang Maduro from a lamppost.

The problem is not Maduro or Chavez. The current situation of Venezuela reminds me of Brasil before the impeachment of Rouseff. What did it come after that? A totally corrupt government! Brasilians are in worst shape now but we do not get to know that since the MSM is controlled. All this economic sanctions are aimed to take down Maduro and believe me after that the situation (for the common Venezuelans) will not be better. Just look at Brasil now.

Spoken by a true believer of the kind that burn people alive on the streets or by a hasbara agent. Either way an enemy of humanity. Do you think the evil Empire would bother Venezuela if their main export was mangos?

How can Venezuela get any worse? There’s no food, people eating from trashcans, no medicine for the sick. Farmers smuggle their crops into Columbia so they can get a market price for them, not the price set by the socialist Venezuelan government.
The Venezuelan government is corrupt, Maduro dances as people starve. ‘Colectivistas’ on motorcycles, loyal to the government, attack protestors with firearms. Maduro is killing his own people, he changes the laws so he can stay in power. There’s video evidence of assassination attempts on his opposition.

And this isn’t from MSM, this is from Venezuelans and indie news outlets that traveled there.

The things you complain about can be traced back to the Venezuelan elites trying to destroy the Venezuelan economy to overthrow the socialist system ,”if we can’t have it,nobody can” is their moto. The fault is also the Venezuelan government’s. They should have known that is the price you pay for leaving an elite around to cause those problems. They should have crushed them ruthlessly at the start. And totally eliminated their power to do harm. No social movement has “ever” succeeded without destroying the old order first. Anybody embarking on a social revolution must clearly understand that from the start. And if they aren’t willing to do so,don’t attempt the revolution.If Venezuela “is”somehow able to survive (a big if ),they must make sure to eliminate that elite by time this is finished,root and branch. Had Yanukovich ordered the police and army to crush the fascists at the start. And imprisoned and executed the US supporters, Ukraine would not have been destroyed. The Venezuelan (and any other) government should have learned from the Ukrainian example,but have they is the question.

I have no doubt that the US has a hand in the opposition, but not like Ukraine or Egypt. It’s not a “color revolution.” When Chavez came to power, he subsidized the poor who were marginalized previously. His concept of socialism being “God’s kingdom on Earth” then marginalized the middle and upper classes. People with money can fight back.

Socialism cannot work. It’s a flawed system. Now that the oil revenue has dried up, the freebees have also.
So what now? There’s no industry to fall back on. Venezuela used to have a large coffee (second most traded commodity next to oil) industry, that’s declined, among others, due to price fixing. Many businesses have been nationalized, government is always less effective and efficient than the private sector. The currency is near worthless, last I checked it was 14,000 Bolivars equals 1 USD.
Central planning doesn’t work, just look to the former Soviet Union.
Everyone in Venezuela will indeed be equal… dirt poor.

I see that story constantly. But it isn’t nearly as simple as that. By the 1970’s,even after having to rebuild from almost scratch after WWII. And with constantly fighting against Western sanctions which tried to keep technology out of their hands. The USSR’s economy was 63-67% of that of the US’s,the greatest of all capitalist powers. While the people had free housing,medical care, job security,pensions,free education, and full employment.There is no doubt that the lack of building industry was/is the main problem Venezuela has. But that was also the problem of the “flush” oil rich capitalist days. When the elite did nothing to build the economy besides squander the wealth on rich living.Those that think the poor should have nothing and only exist to serve the wealthy. Will always lay the blame for economic problems on those that want to give equality and rights to the least among them. But hopefully there are others that look “behind the curtain” and see the truth.

The currency is near worthless, last I checked it was 14,000 Bolivars equals 1 USD.

What do you need dollars for? Over here – in Western Europe – I’m paying with Euros. I could give a $hit about dollars.

According to main stream economists a low exchange rate is favorable. See, … the US workers had been too expensive. China’s labor force had been cheaper – thanks to the exchange rate. Many US companies thus moved their production to China. Never mind that now Chinese workers are doing the jobs of the fired US workers.

With low exchange rates Venezuela could be an export nation. I’ve never seen any Venezuelan product on the shelves of European super markets, nor do I know of any other significant Venezuelan products (technical or otherwise). My observation of no Venezuelan products in Europe includes the time frame before Chavez as well.

Recently I had read that a car plant of General Motors had been seized. According to wikipedia GM stopped its production in 2014 due to lack of supplies. Further the article states that car production dropped to 10 vehicles per day. Lack of supplies? Isn’t it the job of the car manufacturer to buy the supplies and take care of the transport of those supplies? And why did the production drop to 10 cars per day? As far as I remember the Venezuelan opposition already wailed in 2015 / 2016 about unfavorable exchange rates. So, each and every Venezuelan car leaving the GM plant would’ve been dirt cheap for wealthy US customers or wealthy customers of other South American countries (according to your comment Venezuela seems to be the worst country in South America, so citizens of every other nation can be considered “rich”).

The pieces of information don’t add up. For and outside observer the internal problems of Venezuela seem to be the result of a boycott of the rich.

Well, finally it’s the choice of Venezuelans. If you want to see tent cities popping up (like in the US), then you should follow their role model.

Its obviously you dont know the implications of a currency free fall. if you are a minimum wage earner in Venezuela, it means your weekly take home pay has eroded to the equivalent of just US $1.50 a week which means in a country that imports using its precious dollars 95 percent of consumer products, you would not be able to buy much and therefore have to line up once a week for hours according to the last digit of your citizen id number for government dole outs of basic commodities like flour, tissue paper, bread. If you are sick and you go to a government hospital there is not enough medicine so you go to the black market and purchase using worthless bolivars. Next week you wake up and find yourself in a deeper hole as inflation has risen another double digit and your remaining savings is only going to buy you lesser essentials. Meanwhile you see your duly elected President even gain weight blaming America and telling people that they have a plan to turn things around and it starts by removing all opposition and traitors of the state who complain.

Okay, you got me. Probably I don’t know anything about Socialism or Capitalism at all.

Nevertheless I would like to point to some aspect that I didn’t mention in my prior post: “Farmers smuggle their crops into Columbia so they can get a market price for them, not the price set by the socialist Venezuelan government.” Maybe you can tell me how any nation Socialist or Capitalist may take care of the most basic needs of the population if food is secretly sold on markets where the producers can get the highest profit margins.

‘How can Venezuela get any worse? There’s no food, people eating from trashcans, no medicine for the sick. Farmers smuggle their crops into Columbia so they can get a market price for them, not the price set by the socialist Venezuelan government.’

This is all garbage. I live in Central America. Have plenty of friends in Venezuela on both sides of political spectrum. This sort of dumb generalization is nothing but cheap propaganda. A much better description for the situation would be:

The situation is Venezuela is complex and difficult on the social, political and economic fronts, certainly. But life keeps going in this country in a region of the world were life was never easy anyways.

Some franchise food stores have refused to bring fresh supplies to the stores on certain areas of Caracas, which is why some of them look empty. On the other hand, most non franchise food stores on most other areas of that city are operating normally with shelves full of all products needed. With the exception of toilet paper. There is plenty of paper napkins for the table and kitchen cleaning, as well as plenty other paper supplies, just not toilet paper.

All sorts of food stuff are available at super store and local store levels, with people buying and cooking and eating and working regularly, even among the color revolution upheaval areas.

There is no people eating from trashcans except those posing for fake news. The government’s ‘comedores populares’ or popular diners constitute one of Chavez’s Bolivarian Missions and they keep feeding thousands of poor Venezuelans daily all over the country. It was before Chavez that millions of Venezuelans had to eat from trashcans and die of starvation and disease.

Same for public health. Some franchise chain drugstores have not been supplied, so they are empty. Public health institutions run by the government keep hospitals and clinics running, and no people are dying from lack of medicine anywhere. Some expensive medicine is not available, while the government seeks to substitute it with imports from friendly countries or other alternative sources.

As for farmers smuggling production to Colombia, that has always been around in the border areas during the half a century, but especially after Chavez’s government, due to Venezuelans getting the cheapest gasoline in the continent, which they can sell for good money in Colombia, where government captures huge taxes from it.

Food production is up at higher percentages all over Venezuela, including rice, corn, beans, vegetables and coffee. Wheat production was largely in the hands of corporate brands who have shut it down. Government has responded by granting easy loans to independent producers to recover production levels, while Russia has sent millions of tons of flour to Venezuela at very cheap prices.

People all over Caracas keep waking up in the morning, showering, having a coffee, grabbing a bite and going to work, just as most of the country.

‘And this isn’t from MSM, this is from Venezuelans and indie news outlets that traveled there.’

Surely any Venezuelans offering such fake news are those paid by the former puntofijistas exploiters of Venezuela’s oil coffers, who after so many years of Bolivarian rule still cannot accept the fact that Venezuela’s money now serves all the people of Venezuela and it’s no longer going to their private accounts in Gran Cayman, Miami and Suiza.

As for ‘indie news outlets’ traveling there, yes, we know which ones you mean and who pays them.

Keep your garbage fake news for yourself, you are not fooling anyone here.

It is sad to witness deterioration in Venezuela. When I lived in Venezuela in 1979 gasoline was $0.17 a gallon. Shoppers from Miami would travel to Caracas to buy elegant consumer goods in highly fashionable malls. Venezuelans could travel to the US without visas. Yet the country was enmeshed in horrible slums, traffic jams, and petro dollar driven hysteria. Most of the country was empty. Huge tracks of forest lined the mountains traveling south. The nation had only Maracaibo and its oil to run the economy.
Venezuela still has not diversified its economy. This weak point in Mr. Chavez´s revolution is destabilizing President Mauro’s continuation of the Bolivian initiatives and has left the altruistic mission of his predecessor in shambles. The orchestrated overproduction of fossil fuels in this decade has left Venezuela at the mercy of the privateers who wish to free up revenues currently being used for social programs and redirected toward privatization initiatives in order to line their pockets.
The game is outlined in John Perkins book, Confessions of and Economic Hit Man. http://resistir.info/livros/john_perkins_confessions_of_an_economic_hit_man.pdf
In El Salvador where I currently live foreign aid is poorly understood by most who think of it as a benign form of altruism or noblesse oblige on the part of the well endowed northern nations. For those still not clear on how the game is played after perusing Mr. Perkins book they would do well to review the the short video clip of US Congresswoman Illeana Ros-Lehtenin trying to intimidate El Salvador into denouncing Venezuela under the threat of reducing USAID benefits to El Salvador.
This overt posturing along with the not so overt tiptoeing behind the scenes of questionable banking practices and “benevolent ” Venezuelan based NGO´s will continue to undermine equitable social progress. Combine this with chocolate fairies who like to distribute financial sweets to entice bribery in an overly fragile environment will allow the press to successfully claim corruption on the part of the red shirt government. Whether President Maduro is power hungry or noble to persist against such odds will remain to be seen. For sure, obtaining life insurance for the chief executive will be increasingly more difficult.

Anyone wondering what kind of future this “opposition supporter” would like to see for Venezuela need only look at Ukraine.
I mean just look at how the people fare 3 years after the coup. Are they better off in any way?
Or has their country been looted and destroyed?
How many thousands of Ukrainians have died or disappeared or fled the terror regime imposed on them by an “opposition” run by the CIA?

No wonder most Venezuelans support Maduro.

He may not be perfect but he is keeping the barbarians from seizing power.

The Venezuelan government is all that stands between the people of Venezuela and a fascist terror regime and I think the Venezuelans will prevail, but it is a testing time for many nations just now.
Venezuela has powerful friends and it is quite conceivable that help is being provided by, for example, Russia in the form of training in countering colour revolution type events.
A boat load of wheat from Russia is more vital to Venezuelans than a gang of armed thugs from the US so the Venezuelan people know exactly who are their friends and who are their enemies.

What is fascinating to watch is how the US through endless belligerence towards anybody and everybody is actually helping create a coalition of countries whose common defence needs force them together in a way they might not have done were the US threat not there.

I can also imagine Kim in Pyongyang phoning the Chinese and Russian leadership and saying – “You guys were wrong. the US will be just as belligerent to you even though you are both powerful countries, as it is to us. I told you so. We are all in the same boat “.

Please tell us, are you braindead, a zio-nazi troll or can’t you properly understand what was reported by Peter? It’s the USA and its vassals who have been running the Venezuelan economy into the ground. Why don’t you go beautify your garden and (removed,don’t insult other posters.MOD)!

Please, explain how the US has fixed the prices of goods sold in Venezuela so the producers of those goods cannot stay in business? Why has the Venezuelan industry ground to a halt except the poorly run nationalized oil industry?

The drop in oil prices was a horrible blow to Venezuela. And not anything to do with Maduro. As for the prices ,pro-US companies have hoarded goods to cause scarcity and raise prices so people can’t afford them. Then when the government orders reductions of prices to lower levels. Those companies withhold goods and only release them though the black-market to keep the high prices. And make the scarcity at normal prices greater. Its the same plot the US used in Chile in the 1970’s,just updated for 2017 in Venezuela.

It has everything to do with Maduro, and Chavez. They became solely dependent on the oil industry while other industries languished or died completely. There’s no diversification.
As for pro-US companies hoarding goods, it must be that every company is pro-US since the store shelves are bare.
I read a story recently of bakeries being forced to sell bread at a mandated reduced cost that would drive the bakers out of business. The bakers were threatened with the loss of their business if they didn’t comply. That’s tyranny.

And the wealthy elite didn’t diversity? Why would that be. You complain about the government and yet then blame them for not having more control. Those business people could have diversified if they wanted too. But they didn’t either. It was easy to live off the oil wealth and import goods (see Saudi Arabia).Do the bakers go into the countryside and buy the flour from local grinders of wheat. Of course they don’t. It is imported and handled by companies that hoard it to raise prices. The government should have seized those companies at the start. But they didn’t .So for that I do blame them. But now the government is trying to make sure there is bread available. At a price people can afford to pay. I’m curious to know if those “bakers” are mom and pop bakeries. Are as I suspect like in most countries today they are big bakery companies. And if so,they were a part of the “hoarding game” ,and so now must pay for their treason.

One thing that Mexico and Colombia have in common (besides giving lessons of “democracy” to Venezuela), is that they are narcostates. They are controlled in many aspects (even close or probably the even top) by narco gangsters and narco organizations. Their master (the US) just about the same. So good luck to Venezuela if it is going to become one of them!

“…even the Guardian” – what I used to say a couple of years ago about a paper/website I’d read and respected for nearly 4 decades.

It’s info from here and numerous other sites that has made me quit reading The Guardian – obviously it is Deep State propaganda albeit allowed to be progressive to a certain extent. So forget The Guardian at least when it comes to geopolitical news.

Ah yes, let’s not forget the Graun and it history. In 1899 the then editor of the Manchester Guardian, C.P.Scott, you know the guy, ‘Facts are sacred’ opposed the British war in South Africa. For his pains his house, as well as the Guardian’s HQ was attacked by jingoistic mobs and he and his family needed police protection. Compare that to today’s Graun. A liberal-imperialist globalist rag and dispenser the daily dose of 2 minutes hate and disinformation. It is not so much a supporter of the globalist cause as an actual member of it. One look at his board of directors should give the reader a good idea of where its politics are coming from, thus:

The new Scott Trust Ltd appoints a board to run the show – the composition of which might startle those who still regard The Guardian as a left leaning newspaper.

Neil Berkitt – a former banker (Lloyds, St George Bank) who then helped vulture capitalist Richard Branson with Virgin Media.

David Pemsel – Former head of marketing at ITV.

Nick Backhouse – On the board of the bank of Queensland, formerly with Barings Bank.

Ronan Dunne – On the Telefónica Europe plc board, Chairman of Tesco Mobile. He has also worked at Banque Nationale de Paris plc.

The opposite feelings of Peru and Ecuador point to the source of this revolution. Peru’s government is literally owned by the Soros FAMILY, not just by Soros NGOs. Ecuador is strongly anti-Soros, and is taking steps to evict Soros NGOs.

Another obvious vector: Media are citing Smartmatic to discredit the referendum. Smartmatic is owned by Soros.

Venezuela uses electronic voting machines. Jimmy Carter has claimed that the Veneszuelan voting system is sound.

The opposition were invited to take part in auditing the results. They refused to take part. Lo and behold, the London maker of the voting machine, Smartmatic, has issued a statement saying the voting machines were tampered with (apparently they report back home) and that 1 million votes were lost. They produce no evidence to support this.

Some questions for Smartmatic. (I’m others could think of more)

Can your internet-connected system be hacked?
Can you tell if it was or has been hacked?
Has it been hacked?
Which machines were tampered with?
When did the tampering occur?
Who tampered with the machines?
How do you know votes were counted irregularly?
How do you carrive at the error figure?
Was the error in favor of the outcome or against it?
If the system is connected online, why wait until after the outcome is published to notify about tampering?
If tampering occurs, why not make the machine go full retard with lights flashing and sirens blaring at the moment of tampering?
Has the organisation been approached by the US government or the oppositiont?

This all looks very much like the US election where everything was fine and dandy until the wrong result was delivered then wild unsupported claims of hacking, etc are released to the MSM to discredit the outcome.

For the past 15 years, the US, with support from the EU, has waged covert and overt political and military campaigns to overthrow the Chavista government. Prior to the collapse of the global oil price, this was met with little success. Now, the fall of regional allies, the rise of rightist regimes and the economic vulnerabilities of the Venezuelan mono-economy are
threatening the government in Caracas.

In 2002, Washington and the EU backed a failed military-business coup. This was followed by a failed bosses oil lockout in 2003. Washington then supported a failed electoral boycott in 2005 and backed a series of unsuccessful presidential candidates and opposition
congressional parties – until 2015.

Meanwhile, US has backed cross-border attacks by Colombian gangster-paramilitary groups against Venezuelan towns and land reform settlements. Its ‘Democracy’ NGO’s have promoted the terrorist sabotage of oil fields, power plants and public transport systems, as well as clinics and police stations.

Repeatedly, the Chavista forces successfully defeated US-backed terrorist sabotage and referendums. However, the oil price crash over the last three years has changed the socio-economic correlation of forces. Declining income from its oil exports have cut Venezuela’s
imports of vital food, medicine and manufactured goods.

Unlike other successful governments targeted by the US and EU with sanctions and sabotage, Venezuela has remained incapable of substituting production and diversifying its economy. It did not clamp down on hostile NGO groups, nor did it effectively confront violent street protests and capture the terrorists who attacked and assassinated police and military officials, government workers and civilian supporters of the Chavista government.

As the crisis deepened, the US and EU mass media repeatedly called for a military coupor ‘regime change’ backed by ‘strong international (sic) efforts’, thinly coded language for a US-led invasion in collaboration with the far right regimes of Colombia, Brazil and Argentina.

US-funded street thugs have intimidated bus company owners, small business people, and professionals – and especially targeted public employees who lived in neighborhood with a strong opposition presence, forcing them to close businesses or flee.

Economic sanctions have escalated with open US government threats to seize
Venezuelan refineries located in the US (CITGO) and freeze its overseas assets.

CIA and Pentagon operatives have attempted to penetrate the military to ‘turn them’ against the constitutionally legitimate government through bribes and threats against their
families.

The prospects of civil war is reaching a crescendo in late July 2017, as the government fought back convoking and winning free elections for a constituent assembly to elect representatives, based on class and community interests, to counter the US-business-controlled
Congress, which has been at war with the Presidency. The US and its local and overseas collaborators threaten a total blockade with the seizure of overseas assets leading to a possible
civil war and invasion.

Any US-backed war in Venezuela will bring the most retrograde racist oligarchs to power and will result in mass slaughter of the poor and lower middle classes who had benefitedfrom the Chavista social programs, the assassination of their leaders, teachers, intellectuals,
artists and activists, the destruction of the economy and wide-spread hunger and disease, in other words, a nightmarish ‘Libyan solution on the Caribbean’. The US may turn back social
democracy, but Venezuelan revolutionaries will fight on for their very lives.”

” One of the countries that sticks out most with her unsolicited comment is “neutral” Switzerland, where the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on President Maduro, to cancel the elections for the new National Constitutional Assembly in ‘respect of democracy’ ”

In Switzerland there are citizens referendums, and the swiss government is supposed to be obliged to implement the result of these referendums.

Remember the Swiss vote on migration? Swiss people voted in majority to put caps on EU migration.

But then the EU threatened to cancel the economic and trade agreements with Switzerland. No free movement of people, no trade and investment agreements etc.

The Swiss government then illegally ignored the result of the referendum to maintain the status quo with EU (as Switzerland takes part in the EU common market and other EU projects etc ).
The Swiss government did not implement any migration ban as they were supposed to do based on the Swiss laws.

I think they now plan to force a rule that no referendum result could overcome the established international agreements and international law.

That means that the so called Swiss “direct democracy” is a sham. The elites will ignore and block the implementation of any proposal of an anti-establishment orientation.

Finally, the national and popular sovereignty is very limited in the era of ( neoliberal ) Globalisation. Even if there are referendums in place, people cannot alter the economic and political status quo. Transnational institutions and corporations create the laws and control the destiny of the people. The western political system (which was never democratic in the first place) has degenerated into a parliamentary dictatorship all around the West.

I voted for this in Poliedro de Caracas. So many people showed up that I was in awe the whole time O.O.

I’m a Metalhead and no even the Iron Maiden concert can compete with the amount of people in that place that wanted to vote. Violent groups of facists tried to stop us from voting but chavistas had a lot of balls to go out and vote.

Venezuela has a heroic past, we defeated the Spanish empire and fought in other countries in latinamerica to liberate them aswell.

People were crossing rivers and stuff to avoid the opossition paramilitary groups to vote for this. It was amazing to watch. So yeah, I think we still have it in us just like Chavéz said.

One thing to remember and never forget (anytime) is that the US “never” supports groups that are patriotic to their countries. As soon as you see the US supporting a group. Or hear that a group supports the US. Automatically you should realize they are traitors to their own people.So in today’s World that is the one true “key” to understanding the confusion that is rampant in the World.Since the US supports the “opposition” in Venezuela. And that “opposition” supports the US. Then it is beyond doubt that “opposition” is made up of traitors to Venezuela.

@voltaire1964…not to forget, the Vatican’s near, immediate invitation to Ukraine, coup selected, PM Yatsenyuk to a private papal audience, before the country’s illegal government cabinet had even been decided upon.So the Pope’s message to the one billion+ Catholic faithful is…….?

The Article’s message is summarised in this quote, ‘Since the opposition started a round of protests in April, Ms Ortega has become President Nicolas Maduro’s main challenger from within the ruling socialist movement, accusing him of human rights abuses.

The new constituent assembly, which Ms Ortega said was fraudulently elected last weekend, unanimously decided to remove her in its first session on Saturday.’

So, while the world was forgetting about the Ukraine, puzzling over Syria, being alarmed by North Korea, and completely baffled by China and Russia (those who follow the mainstream media) …… The Evil Empire is preparing the ground for a stealing the oil from the people of Venezuela, with possibly a small war thrown in as icing on the cake

I do not know if it just that I am getting to be an ‘old-fuck’, or the world is becoming more disturbing

Peter Koenig has penned another piece about Venezuela. The lefties can’t bring themselves to admit that Venezuela has repeated all the mistakes of the former “socialist” satellites of eastern Europe, step by stupid step. And the righties can’t bring themselves to admit that the US has messed with Central and South American countries for more than a century, and isn’t about to stop now. And neither side has the guts to praise what the other side did right.

Maduro has destroyed Venezuela’s economy. If the CIA helps to finish it off, it’s still mainly Chavez’ and Maduro’s doing. But at the same time, why is it that the “free enterprise” crowd never noticed that the Venezuelan masses lived in utter poverty, with no access to education and health care? Something had to give.

Unfortunately, the author relies on polemicist and emotional reasoning, with little hard evidence.

Yet another article, with zero evidence, blaming the U.S. for Venezuela’s economic issues. The fact of the matter is, Venezuelas economy was reliant on oil exports. Rather than invest in diversifying the economy and in the manufacturing/food sectors, Chavez and Maduro instead gave populist handouts to the poor, alleviating poverty in the short-term, but doing nothing to wean the country off of oil in the long-term. Not only that, but since the country’s domestic economy was never developed, the country had to rely on expensive food imports, which need foreign currencies. Venezuela used to be Latin America’s richest country in the 1970s, with a per-capita GDP even greater than some European countries like Italy and Greece. When oil prices crashed, it was obvious to everyone that the economy would crash and widespread human suffering would be the result. Less oil revenues mean less dollars to import food and other basic needs. Then came the hyperinflation.

The Maduro regime responded by using anti-Americanism as a distraction. It blamed the hyperinflation on a website that gives Venezuelans the blackmarket exchange rate for the Bolivar. It blamed “CIA/right-wing/fascist/opposition/oligarchic collusion” (take your pick) for deliberately engineering artificial food shortages by “hoarding” the food supply. It blamed the general economic issues on “economic sabotage” by the U.S. Anti-American murals appeared over-night all over Caracas. You get the point. Classic distraction by using a foreign enemy.

Now, on to Trump’s military threats:

When Trump said that a “military option” was on the table with regard to Venezuela, I guarantee you the Maduro administration popped open the champagne in celebration. This was a perfect distraction. Immediately after Trump made those remarks, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister blasted the U.S., knowing full well the threat was empty, but used it as a convenient distraction and to re-inforce the anti-American narrative. They got a chance to criticize the opposition for not being “patriotic” enough, and were even able to reverse their diplomatic isolation in the region by getting other Latin American countries to join them in condemning the U.S., despite most of these countries having earlier criticized Maduro. And now, they are using the empty threat from a manchild as an excuse to distract the country with military drills.

Lastly, the Maduro regime has not given any evidence of “hoarding” being the cause of the food shortages. One specific example cited by Maduro himself and the state-backed teleSur is this:

“In November, Venezuelan authorities discovered 2,500 kilos of expired wheat flour at a Kraft Heinz factory. At the time, the company said the flour went bad because it lacked the raw materials necessary to convert the wheat into its food products. The Venezuelan government, however, claims private corporations are deliberately hoarding food items to manufacture shortages ahead of parliamentary elections to be held Dec. 6.”

They found a measly 2.76 tons of expired wheat, which Heinz couldn’t use due to a lack of materials, and decided to use it as evidence for “economic sabotage” by U.S. corporations! Seriously, that’s the best evidence for the U.S. and opposition being behind the “economic sabotage” against the country? “Hoarding” of flour?

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